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LEX 18 Investigates: The Sports Gene

Posted: Feb 23, 2011 6:19 PM by Mary Jo Perino
Updated: Feb 23, 2011 8:20 PM


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Michael Jordan has it, Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Serena Williams, John Wall, the list goes on and on. Elite athletes always have a little help from their genetics.

Could your child be the next superstar?

Chad Moody is a parent of a young boy who plays baseball and basketball. His son, Talon, says he loves it and Moody says that's all he needs to know.

"I leave it all to the kid and his interest level. If he wants to play I want him to play, if I didn't think he wanted to play I wouldn't force the issue, but I don't think I'd do testing to try to see if he's good at something or not," said Moody.

But he could give that test to his son and find out if baseball and basketball are really the sports best suited for him.

The company is called Atlas Sports Genetics and it's test focuses around ACTN3, otherwise known as the sports gene. It has been identified to show what genetic advantages are in your muscles, and it can be determined at a very early age.

It's simple. For about $170 you get a kit. You swab the inside of your child's mouth and send it back. The test then is sent off to Australia where they determine what sports your child may be genetically predisposed to excel in.

There are three possible outcomes. If you have two copies of the gene, one from both parents, the test would tell you your child would be better suited for endurance sports like cross country or swimming.

If you don't have the gene at all, your fast twitch muscles should help you in speed or power sports, like football or swimming.

If only one of your parents passed along the gene, you have a little mixture of both and soccer or cycling might be your best fit.

Dr. Bruce O'Hara, a biology professor at the University of Kentucky, says of the roughly 25,000 genes in the human body, about a thousand of them affect athletic performance. This tests just one gene in those thousand.

"Maybe in ten or 20 years we'll have complete geno-sequences on everybody and we'll be able to know a lot about people's genetic predisposition toward athletics or other behaviors, but right now this is just one of many, many, many genes that probably affect performance," Dr. O'Hara said.

Atlas says it's mission is not for parents to sway their kids away from certain sports, rather to guide them to what may be best suited for that child.

Moody says he's not sure that's such a great idea.

"I can see where parents would use a test like this to maybe point their kids in a certain direction," said Moody.

Dr. O'Hara says the value of this test is very limited. Practice, coaching, desire, diet and environmental factors play a huge role in who becomes an elite athlete, it's not just in the genes. But if you want to know if your child will be a good sprinter, there is one sure fire way.

"The best indication of whether you're kid's going to be a great sprinter is wait until he's old enough and let him run," said Dr. O'Hara.

Topics: sports gene, John Wall, genetic testing

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